Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the South Carolina women's basketball team will be in the U. S. Virgin Islands, participating in the Paradise Jam tournament. It may be paradise, but it will be a taxing weekend, with games scheduled against Oklahoma, Notre Dame and San Diego State, all NCAA tournament teams in 2008-2009. With that level of competition, it doesn't look like much of a holiday for the Gamecocks, but I think they will surprise some people--maybe everybody!--and will not leave the Virgin Islands without a win. Or two.

 

OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma is no stranger to the Gamecocks, who played a home-and-away series with the Sooners in the 06=07 and 07-08 seasons. Oklahoma is undergoing some transition, if not rebuilding, after losing both Ashley and Courtney Paris to graduation, as well as three other players. However, they return some excellent players with considerable experience, though they face the 2010 season with a roster of only 10 players.

Abi Olajuwon, a senior (daughter of Hakeem Olajuwon) will fill the void at center. She has minimal game experience, but spent 3 years battling Courtney Paris in practice. Whitney Hand, Big 12 Freshman of the Year in 08-09, returns at guard. Danielle Robinson, a junior guard, was All Big 12 First Team and AP All American Honorable Mention last season. Nyeshia Stevenson and Amanda Thompson also bring significant experience.

The Gamecocks have lost the last two contests by 27 and 32 points. It should be closer, this time.

 

NOTRE DAME

Notre Dame is coming off a successful 22-9 season that ended in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Head coach Muffet McGraw is in her 23rd season at the South Bend, Indiana school and expects a longer run in the tournament, this season.

The 2010 team has 5 senior players, 4 of whom averaged between 16 and 32 minutes per game, last season. Seniors Ashley Barlow and Lindsay Schrader were the leading scorers at 12.7 and 12.6 points per game, respectively. Schrader also led the team in rebounding with 7.4 per game.

Melissa Lechlitner played the most minutes, started every game, had the best free-throw percentage (82%) and led the team in assists with 106. Junior Becca Bruszewski also started every game and averaged just over 10 points and 5 rebounds per game. A handful of other players also played significant minutes in 08-09, making this team one of the oldest and most experienced teams the Gamecocks will face. There are only two freshman on the squad, Kaila Turner and Skylar Diggins. Diggins was one of the top guard prospects in the country and was selected to compete in both the McDonald's and Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) High School All-American games.

Last year's Irish team beat both LSU and Vanderbilt from the Southeastern Conference; this will be a very tough non-conference test for the Gamecocks.

 

SAN DIEGO STATE

The San Diego State Aztecs posted their first 20-win season in 12 years in 08-09, finishing 24-8 overall and 13-3 in the Mountain West Conference. They also won a share of their first-ever MWC regular season title, advanced to the MWC tournament championship game for the second consecutive season and won SDSU's first NCAA tournament bid since 1997. SDSU hosted first and second round games and beat DePaul 76-70, before losing to Final Four participant Stanford.

Head coach Beth Burns is in her second stint as the Aztec's head coach. She first took the reins in 1989-90, with her first team posting a 7-23 record. That was her only losing season. Eight years later, the team was 23-7, her fourth consecutive 20-win season, and from there she moved on to the head coaching position at Ohio State for 5 seasons. In 2005-06, she returned to SDSU, where her first team was 3-24 and winless in the MWC and she again rebuilt the team into a winner.

The Aztecs are led by senior guard Jene Brown, who shoots a lot of 3s, gets a lot of steals and averaged 16 points per game to lead the team in 08-09. She is joined by 3 other returning starters: 6-4 junior center Paris Johnson, who led the team in rebounding with a 8.3 average and had 94 blocked shots to lead the team (She is, however, a terrible free throw shooter with a 46% average); senior guard Quenese Davis, who played the most minutes, led the team with 187 assists, averaged 11.7 points per game and was the team's best free throw shooter, with over 25% of her total points coming from the line. Junior guard Coco Davis is the 4th starter with 4.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game in 08-09, second on the team in assists with 82.

As a team, the Aztecs averaged 64.5 points and allowed 58.4. They took a lot more shots than their opponents, from both the floor and the 3-point line. They did have fewer rebounds than their opponents, 34.6 versus 37.9 for their foes, and had significantly fewer defensive rebounds. However, they also had more than 100 more assists and steals than opponents, over 100 fewer turnovers and nearly double the blocked shots of their opponents, each of which put them in the top 20 nationally for these categories.

 

This week's Sports Illustrated has a women's basketball season preview that should be of great interest to Gamecocks fans. Richard Deitsch posted his Top 20 predictions and the first half contains few surprises, but be sure to read all the way to the bottom:

 1. Connecticut

 2. Stanford

 3. Ohio State   (surprises me, I would rank them much lower)

 4. Michigan State  (also not where I'd put them)

 6. Xavier  (maybe)

 7. Baylor

 9. LSU  (SEC opponent)

10. Tennessee (SEC opponent--I'd reverse positions of LSU and UT, personally, and won't be surprised if Tennessee finishes significantly higher)

12. Texas

13. Duke

14. Middle Tennessee State (maybe, considering it's the Sunbelt Conference)

15. Virginia  (senior guard Monica Wright is on pace to erase Dawn Staley's career scoring record of 2,135--but not so sure that's enough to rank them up here)

16. Rutgers

17. Vanderbilt  (SEC opponent)

18. Gonzaga

19. Georgia (SEC opponent)

 

Pre-season polls actually mean absolutely nothing; every team would rather be in the final poll than in the pre-season poll, when the numbers are a lot more likely to reflect what they did on the court and may have some effect on where they go in the post-season--but isn't it nice to see the home team's name up there, anyway?

 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!